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CDC director to headline AVMA Opening Session in D.C.

Julie L. Gerberding, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the keynote speaker at the Opening Session of the 144th AVMA Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.

The Opening Session is Saturday, July 14, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the Washington Convention Center Ballroom. Doors open at 7 a.m., and seating is on a first come, first served basis. Coffee, juice, fruit, and pastries will be available.

Dr. Gerberding will discuss why veterinarians are key to achieving optimal public health and why the CDC has listed zoonotic diseases as a top priority. The CDC director will also touch on why now, more than ever, veterinary medicine is important to the well-being of the United States and the world.

Before becoming CDC director and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry administrator, Dr. Gerberding was acting deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases. There she played a major role in leading CDC's response to the anthrax bioterrorism events of 2001.

Dr. Gerberding joined the CDC in 1998 as director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at NCID where she developed the agency's patient safety initiatives and other programs to prevent infections, antimicrobial resistance, and medical errors in health care settings.

In addition to her duties at the CDC, Dr. Gerberding is a clinical professor of medicine at Emory University and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.